Progress Report: Work Package 8 Updates

Over the past year, we have been working with the establishment of a regional coordination centre for computer assisted diagnostic (CAD) tools in pathology in the Western Norway Health Region. Our goal is for the centre to be operational from 2025.

During this first year we have focused on defining the centre’s scope and tasks. Through close dialogue with the pathology community in the region we have identified the challenges associated with testing, implementing and maintaining CAD tools, and defined the structures and frameworks the centre can administer. The centre’s ultimate goal is to act as a bridge between research, development, implementation and operations. It will assist the pathology departments with practical questions and tasks related to the implementation and maintenance of CAD tools in the diagnostic workflow.

The work during this first year has also been focused on defining the organizational- and administrative framework of the centre. The current model is that the centre will have one full-time employee responsible for management and regional coordination. In addition, the centre will have a leader which will be employed 50% by the centre and 50% in one of the regional pathology departments. This is to ensure a close connection with the pathology community. Additionally, the centre will have local coordinators in each of the regional pathology departments, who will have dedicated time (20-40%) to work hands-on with tasks associated with the centre. We propose that the centre leader reports to a board/stearing group, which is composed of the leaders of each of the four pathology departments in the region.

One of the major challenges that remain is to secure funding for the centre. At the moment we are searching for appropriate external funding sources, but we also aim to investigate possible options for receiving funding from within the organization. We are building a business case to demonstrate that a regional organization of a centre is the most profitable and effective solution for the region as a whole. We trust that the business case will show that the centre is a sound investment. The health care sector is currently investing significant recourses into CAD/AI tools with the hope of achieving a more effective clinical workflow. However, very little focus has been aimed towards the major challenges that remain; to bridge the gap between research, development and implementation. We firmly believe that this centre represents a recourse that the health care sector needs in order to achieve safe and sustainable implementation and use of CAD tools in medical diagnostics.  

The centre will most likely be named DADiVest, which (in Norwegian) stands for “Datamaskin-assistert diagnostikk i Vest”.